A stubborn teen faces off with her brooding, indifferent (but super hot) soulmate in this unique and sexy take on a classic paranormal romance story.

She’s met her mate . . . and he’s met his match.

Megan Ross has been waiting her whole life for her mate to come and sweep her off her feet. But the wolf she meets on the beach is NOT the sweet gentle boy she’s been dreaming of. Instead, he’s a warrior, one whose suffering has led him to lock his heart away in a prison as cold and hard as a diamond, who fights to resist the bond and their deep attraction.

Far from home, with a soulmate who is still a stranger, Megan learns that the path to true love isn’t quite as straight and easy as she thought . . .

Chosen by readers like you for Macmillan’s young adult imprint Swoon Reads, Alyssa Brandon’s debut novel Bound to You is guaranteed to make readers swoon, sigh, and maybe even cry before it’s over.

The world of BOUND TO YOU

The concept of the world for Bound To You came to me long before the actual story did. At least the idea of having normal werewolves, warrior werewolves and then wraiths that hunted werewolves, did. This was inspired by several vampire books (such as the Vampire Academy and Black Dagger Brotherhood) and I just thought doing it with werewolves (since I love werewolves!) would be interesting.

But it wasn’t until I actually was working on the book and introducing the wolf packs, more of the werewolf culture developed. I wrote some scenes developing werewolf society further (that we ended up not using) and that was really fun. Trying to think just how werewolves might have their society structured and what would make them different from us humans was a really fun part of working on this book, even if a lot of it just developed pretty naturally.

When working on Bound To You, I also wanted a bit of diversity within the werewolf culture. Because to me, it didn’t make sense that everything would be same for all the werewolves everywhere. So I let Megan reflects the more modern werewolf culture and James a slightly more old-fashioned warrior werewolf one.

Managing this different yet same culture was one of my favorite aspects of the world. As is the idea of the wolf picking its “mate” and the human just having to go along with it. I think it makes for great drama and fun. But while I love the tension and romance of the mate bond, at the same time I wish I could have shared more and even further developed the reason behind the mate bond and why it happens, what it means and where it comes from more. How free will and choice and all that comes into it.

Because it’s a bit unrealistic and mysterious right now, isn’t it? Because how could the wolf know who is right or not for him/her? We’re all made up of so much, our childhood and past, our personality, our choices going forward. Such a power to know the past and present and future is more amazing than people turning into wolves when you think about it.

So overall the mate bond aspect of the world is something I’m torn over; I like the way it’s not the focus but at the same time I wish I could have included more of an explanation it. But then again, can we explain why we fall in love? Most would say no. Maybe the mate bond should be like that, something that can never truly be explained? Maybe an explanation would even have ruined the magic of it?

Alyssa Brandon is a recent college graduate from Sweden who enjoys reading, doing yoga, puzzles, and, of course, writing. Bound to You is her debut novel.

Disclaimer: The synopsis and cover picture were pulled from the book’s Goodreads page. Neither belong to us. The author image, info, giveaway, and more were provided by Xpresso Book Tours. The images in the post were provided along with the content from the author.